Francesca Da Rimini

TO BON GAULTIER.

[Argument.--Animpassioned pupil of Leigh Hunt, having met Bon Gaultier at a Fancy Ball, declares the destructive consequences thus.]

Didst thou not praise me, Gaultier, at the hall, Ripe lips, trim boddice, and a waist so small, With clipsome lightness, dwindling ever less, Beneath the robe of pea-y greeniness?

Dost thou remember, when, with stately prance, Our heads went crosswise in the country-dance; Howsoft, warm fingers, tipped like "buds of balm, Trembled within the squeezing of thy palm; And how a cheek grew flushed and peachy-wise At the frank lifting of thy cordial eyes?

Ah, me! that night there was one gentle thing, Who, like a dove, with its scarce feathered wing, Fluttered at the approach of thy quaint swaggering!

There's wont to be, at conscious times like these, An affectation of a bright-eyed ease,-- A crispy cheekiness, if so I dare Describe the swaling of a jaunty air;

And thus, when swirling from the waltz's wheel, You craved my hand to grace the next quadrille, That smiling voice, although it made me start, Boiled in the meek o'erlifting of my heart;. And, picking at my flowers, I said, with free And usual tone, "O yes, sir, certainly!"

Like one that swoons, 'twixt sweet amaze and fear, I heard the music burning in my ear, And felt I cared not, so thou wert with me, If Gurth or Wamba were our vis-à-vis.

So, when a tall Knight Templar ringing came, And took his place amongst us with his dame, I neither turned away, nor bashful shrunk From the stern survey of the soldier-monk, Though,rather more than three full quarters drunk; But, threading through the figure, first in rule, I paused to see thee plunge into La Poule.

Ah, what a sight was that! Not prurient Mars, Pointing his toe through ten celestial bars-- Not young Apollo, beamily arrayed In tripsome guise for Juno's masquerade--

Not smartest Hermes, with his pinion girth, Jerking with freaks and snatches down to earth, Looked half so bold, so beautiful, and strong, As thou, when pranking through the glittering throng! How the calmed ladies looked with eyes of love On thy trim velvet doublet laced above; The hem of gold, that, like a wavy river, Flowed down into thy back with glancing shiver! So bare was thy fine throat, and curls of black, So lightsomely dropped in thy lordly back, So crisply swaled the feather in thy bonnet, So glanced thy thigh, and spanning palm upon it, That my weak soul took instant flight to thee, Lost in the fondest gush of that sweet witchery!

But when the dance was o'er, and arm in arm (The full heart beating 'gainst the elbow warm) We passed into the great refreshment-hall, Where the heaped cheese-cakes and the comfits small Lay,like a hive of sunbeams, brought to burn Around the margin of the negus urn; When my poor quivering hand you fingered twice, And, with inquiring accents, whispered "Ice, Water, or cream?" I could no more dissemble, But dropped upon the couch all in a tremble. A swimming faintness misted o'er my brain, The corks seemed starting from the brisk champagne, The custards fell untouched upon the floor, Thine eyes met mine. That night we danced no more!

THE CADI'S DAUGHTER, A LEGEND OF THE BOSPHORUS.

Howbeauteous is the star of night Within the eastern skies, Like the twinkling glance of the Toorkman's lance, Or the antelope's azure eyes!

A lamp of love in the heaven above, That star is fondly streaming; And the gay kiosk and the shadowy mosque In the Golden Horn are gleaming.

YoungLeila sits in her jasmine bower, And she hears the bulbul sing,' As it thrills its throat to the first full note, That anthems the flowery spring.

She gazes still, as a maiden will, On that beauteous eastern star: You might see the throb of her bosom's sob Beneath the white cymar!

She thinks of him who is far away,-- Her own brave Galiongee,-- Where the billows foam and the breezes roam, On the wild Carpathian sea.

She thinks of the oath that bound them both Beside the stormy water; And the words of love, that in Athens' grove He spake to the Cadi's daughter.

"My Selim!" thus the maiden said, "Though severed thus we be, By the raging deep and the mountain steep, My soul still yearns to thee.

Thy form so dear is mirrored here In my heart's pellucid well, As the rose looks up to Phingari's orb, Or the moth to the gay gazelle.

"I thinkof the time when the Kaftan's crime Our love's young joys o'ertook, And thy name still floats in the plaintive notes Of my silver-toned chibouque.

Thy hand is red with the blood it has shed, Thy soul it is heavy laden; Yet come, my Giaour, to thy Leila's bower; Oh, come to thy Turkish maiden!"

A light step trod on the dewy sod, And a voice was in her ear, And an arm embraced young Leila's waist-- "Beloved! I am here!"

Like the phantom form that rules the storm, Appeared the pirate lover, And his fiery eye was like Zatanai, As he fondly bent above her.

"Speak, Leila, speak; for my light caïque Rides proudly in yonder bay; I have come from my rest to her I love best, To carry thee, love, away.

The breast of thy lover shall shield thee, and cover My own jemscheed from harm; Think'st thou I fear the dark vizier, Or the mufti's vengeful arm?

"Then droop not, love, nor turn away From this rude hand of mine! And Leila looked in her lover's eyes, And murmured--"I am thine!"

But a gloomy man with a yataghan Stole through the acacia-blossoms, And the thrust he made with his gleaming blade Hath pierced through both their bosoms.

"There! there! thou cursed caitiff Giaour! There, there, thou false one, lie!" Remorseless Hassan stands above, And he smiles to see them die.

They sleep beneath the fresh green turf. The lover and the lady-- And the maidens wail to hear the tale Of the daughter of the Cadi!